A Life to give
by someone.took.my.name
Summary: ME2 AU, Shepard, found on a frozen planet is not taken by Cerberus but by the Geth. In a completely different reality than what should be, how will the Galaxy's fate differ from what we know.


'Neural blocks disabled.' "What was that?" 'Data core ready.' "Where am I?" 'Transfer protocols established; initiating scanning.' I Pry open my eyes too only meet darkness, this doesn't seem right. "Must be the morning haze." While rubbing my face, wait... Where is the rubing sensation that you feel when you touch your own face. What the hell is this! 'Brain activity spike detected'

"Shepard-commander-Liberator please remain calm" A new voice said sounding oddly like an intercom slash VI. "What's happening? Where am I? Hello! Anybody! Help!" 'Neural blocks destabilizing, disconnection approaching.' "Shepard-commander-Liberator! Please try too remain calm, if you fail to comply-" a pause filled heavily by tapping and the wizz of servos. Wait, if it sounds like a synthetic, acts like an AI, and the wizz of servos is audible then it must be; Geth! One thought penetrates my mind. MOVE. "Shepard-commander-Liberator remain still!" "What ever A Geth tries too tell me will probably be bad for my health. I try to punch, kick, do something, but nothing happens. I cant control my body at all. What is going on!

A sudden burst of pain, from my left leg, or what I think was my left leg, singes my nerves and black inky darkness slowly consumes me.

Runtime** #9286214456391**: "Shepard-commander-Liberator regained consciousness while accessing the network. This has caused concern of the likely hood of this succeeding in transferring Shepard-commander-Liberator's organic brain to data format."

Runtime **#928621334581**: "Shepard-commander-Liberator's brain will not be tempered with. Designs for handling and holding of Shepard-commander-Liberator's brain is underway. Recommendation of redesigning of Oblivion to better protect the liberator's brain."

Runtime **#9288414456947**: "Construction of Oblivion is 48.452% complete. Current runtimes active on development: 28 338 000. Estimated time till completion. 1 human cycle."

In the darkness of space aboard a massive station, a lone platform was directing and building the future of the Geth. Black plates formed his shell as a lone red stripe oozes down its right side. On the table next to it laid a corpse charred, Plastic undersuit melted into skin. Several machines kept its brain alive, while dozens of fibre optic cables dug into the skull, moved data constantly.

A single dogtag burnt on the side covering the name hung from its neck. It read: Shepard...

"Process complete. Awaiting consensus." Stillness pregnated the air, not a living, breathing being was present on the station. All was shaded dull grey, black and deathly green colours permeated the air, the only sound audible was the soft rattle that originated from the massive fusion reactor of the station and the rows of radiators cooling it. A silent fortress the birth place of a new legend.

This consensus was simple; nevertheless complicated. Option A was to plant Shepard's brain into the specially built Oblivion chassis. Option B was to plant the massive secondary core on the oblivion chassis and the brain on a mobile vehicle. Both held many pros and cons.

It was decided. The commander's brain, placed inside a tank specially designed to withstand a nuclear blast, was to be placed into the single most advanced item in the galaxy; the prototype Oblivion chassis.

The Geth stalked forward, and hefted the 50 kilo brain case up. And deposited into the transfer unit of the Oblivion. The Oblivion was 2.3 meters tall, weighed 580 kilos and could practically be described as the single most advanced Geth platform ever. The hydraulics had special fluid to make it stronger than a Geth prime. In-built kinetic barriers that was calibrated to be recharged every 48 hours. Instead of the ordinary 30 - 60 days. This allowed amazing durability for missions, it housed a single overcharged micro-fusion core, not too dissimilar to the YMIR-mech core. Its armour with advanced nano-laith and reconstructive nanobots could withstand a massive amount of punishment. It housed 2, 8-liter tanks filled with omni-gel or medi-gel was fitted inside the chassis, the omni-gel worked with the 8 omnitool fabricators to construct grenades or small repair patches. Many more innovation were put into this death machine. But for now it housed the first Human spectres' brain.

Shepard's PoV

Pain shook me awake and greeted me with vision. It was dark, the air twisted into sickly greens my sight was grainy as if peering at a screen I was lying on my back. A deep breath and I was upright the movement was slow, totally unnatural. I look down. What the fuc... My entire chest is metal, dull gray metal. My hands, metallic three fingered. What is going on. I clutch my head. I don't feel a thing, I have no sense of touch? Smell? Taste? This must be a nightmare.

'Proximity alert' a soft female synthetic voice soothes me. A small blip attracts my attention, a HUD with accompanying map. A single green blip appears.

"Shepard-commander. Are you functional?" It calls over the radio.

I look up. Surprised would be an understatement. The single enemy I fought was in front of me, the sentient AIs that blindly followed the bastard Saren across the Galaxy, trying to return the reapers. GETH! A solid right hook connects with its face, it stumbles, and I kick it.

"Shepard-commander. Please cease hostile action, we mean you no harm." It seems to be limping.

"What have you done too me! Is this some sick Joke! I go down with my ship and then you transform me into A fucking robotic monster."

"We simply revived you. We didn't not choose to do this against your will, we found you on a planet dead. We Geth simply tried too keep the Liberator alive."

"Liberator? You got to be kidding me?"

"Shepard-commander. You are the Liberator, you will Liberate the Geth from the old machines."  
Well that was unexpected, he expects me to save them from the Reapers.

"You sided with them, why would you need saving? What did your gods go against their word, their promise was full of lies?"

"We the majority did not side with the enders of life. In fact military production has been increased by 48% to fight this threat."

"Why?"

"Shepard-commander we do not understand. Please specify."

"If you are already building more ships. Then why do you need ME!"

"United we stand, alone we fall. Shepard-commander is required to broker peace between organics and the Geth. To ensure that this cycle does not repeat."

"Okay so what happened, what leads do you have?"

"Shepard-commander-Liberator, we believe that a human colony was recently attacked, designation 'freedoms progress' cause of attack is unknown. The attackers fit the profile of the collectors. Also a recent Quarian pilgrim was located at freedoms progress." The N7 Geth platform reported.

"collectors?"

"The collectors are brokers of the reapers, they have been raiding human colonies, abducting their entire population. Nothing is disturb except that all data is wiped from the computers."

"And how is this achieved?"

"A probable mass stasis coupled with an EMP discharge."

"Okay lets see what we can find. Note this Geth, one wrong move and I Kill as many of you that I can."

"Understood Shepard commander. Please follow us to the armoury."

And so I followed him. Through dark tunnels only lighting was equvilant to emergency lights.

"Say what is this?" Gesturing to my Geth chassis.

"That is the most advanced Geth platform to be made thus far. It has many military functions and houses 5000 Geth programs."

The armoury was more than just a place to keep their guns. It was a store house, Lining the wall was tens of thousands of Geth platforms. All curled up and inactive. Hundreds of Geth armatures and tens of colossuses. And this was only on 1 floor. I imagined that the storehouse went on for at least another 100 floors.

We ventured to a nearby work table on it was a machine gun. 12Kg of HMG, a massive heat vent set underneath the barrel length wise. Made to fire slugs at 3% light speed, with a fire rate close to 3000 slugs a minute. The Hardbringer prototype HMG was a nasty piece of machine, and seemed more at home on a tank.

"Commander this will be your weapon. Designed to have as little heat build up as it can. It will fire 300 shots before overheating. Cooling time is at 15 seconds at standard temperature. It also has thermal clip sockets. For an extended fire time of 720 rounds before overheating and the clip is ejected. we are still developing the shotgun and sniper-rifle."

"Lets go." The Geth led me to the docking areas. Again amazed by the amount of bombers and fighters, not to mention the 3 Geth dreadnoughts docked, each about 1.5 kilometres long (4500 give or take a few 100 foot long) and at least 50 cruisers and 150 destroyers and nearly 300 frigates.

He led me to a small slim ship, shaped like a needle, about 135 meters long. It reminded me of the Normandy. Why? because In comparison the drive core was huge. Multiple heatbanks rested in the belly of the ship The fact that this is the only ship of the design around, further cemented that conclusion.

We set off towards the relay. Only now I saw, we were on a station orbiting Rannoch, my thoughts immediately sprung to Tali... O shit. There were probably quarians on Freedoms Progress and they would become hostile extremely quickly against Geth.

The time it took us to arrive at freedoms progress gave me time to reflect on my situation. It was disturbing and discomforting to be locked in this metal suitcase. A fancy near indestructible metal suitcase. I could not feel pain, I could not touch, zero sense of smell. It was confusing.

The Geth were extremely complex, a single program meant nothing to them. They only worked when a couple dozen was connected to one another, even worse their cold hard logic often led them to do things slowly and deliberately.

"This collective, am I part of it? You know since this is a Geth body?"

"Yes. Shepard-commander is part of the collective."

"How?"

"All the programs Housed in that unit is connected, they work to monitor and help you, but their most important function is to improve the platform you reside in. You are in control of the platform, your mind sends the commands, the programs interpret it and order the platform to move as you wish, the average response time is 12 milliseconds."

"I see, can the platforms take control of the body?"

"Only in the event of unconsciousness, the platforms will take over the body and enact self preservation protocols."

"We are arriving at the drop zone Shepard-commander."

Freedoms progress was cold and harsh, insane to think someone would want to live here. Silence greeted us, apparently the collectors gather their victims without disturbing anything. As if one minute the people were there living their lives and the next their all gone. And it seems that the alliance is not doing anything to stop it.

"Shepard-commander-Liberator I register several drone remains. Likely a detachment of the of the colonies automated defence force."

'Proximity alert' "More like 20 drones." The pack of attack drones swooped in gunning us. They move fast and is hard to get a full lock on. On top of that each has an LMG. With advanced logic they would set up and fire and after their gun over heated they would take off. They were designed and programmed to distract targets, perform hit and run attacks. Aka Guerrilla warfare. But a handful of them could overwhelm a squad of 6 to 12.

My shields were halfway depleted before I even reached cover and I knew they would just pop up from behind and shoot me to bits.

'Self preservation 2 activated' the synthetic voice of the VI said. After speaking whine was audible followed by the zap of electricity. A blue corona flared off me as each drone hit by it blew up in order.

"What the hell was that? I thought you said I controlled the chassis."

" That was an EMP. In the circumstance that the odds would be less than 5% the body will automatic defend itself. These tools are not at Shepard-commander-Liberator's disposal, and only three are built into the suit." The Geth platform explained calmly.

"If that was an EMP why are we not pieces of metal sparking like mad?"

"The Geth do not use copper wiring. We have fluids that transfers current, but is immune to external electricity."

"Lets move on. I have a feeling that you are not telling me everything."

We rounded the corner after our shields recharged and what do you know, these little security mechs start shooting us with pistols. PISTOLS, they hardly even dent my shields and before they even know it they are filled with 30 holes each.

"This gun, Is FREAKING AWESOME!" It really was. Combined with the cold weather of Freedoms Progress it could fire a 1000 rounds before overheating with the thermal clips inside and the integrated HUD system that was better than a laser sight helped hip fire amazingly.

We entered one hab-shelter. And what do you know. Quarians.

WELL FUCK! Something I don't want to shoot.

"Geth! Get to cover." The one in a white suit with light pink trim shouted.

"Firing an overload." Another in dark midnight colour shouted.

Several systems screeched to halt, shields were drained to 70% and blue coronas flared over me as the mass-accelerated slugs impacted on the kinetic barriers.

"Hold fire. Hold fire!" My synthetic voice box shouted. The Quarians were utterly confused.

"The Geth talked. Tali what should we do?" The one in white asked.

"Tali? Tali! Its me Shepard."

"Bullshit. Commander Shepard died with the Normandy." And with renewed vigour they fired and kept firing. The M3-avengers they had got at least 80 shots out of a thermal clip because of the harsh weather.

Se continued to blow overload after overload into my suite.

"Shepard-commander. You are able to hack Quarian suites."

"Then god damn it, help me!" Immediately several items popped up on the HUD. I selected the one in the dark blue and selected to hack into the audio system.

"Tali. Please listen." I tried my best to stay calm and passive.

"The hell, they're in my suite." Tali flicked open her omni-tool and started to fight back the infiltration program.

"Stop you stupid Quarian. It's really me. Listen I can prove it." I quelled my rage as fast as I could.

"Prove it." She said almost in a whisper.

"I gave you that Geth data. It contained records of how the Geth evolved."

"Hold fire!" She shouted. "Truce." She looked my way. "Truce." I responded.

"Did the data help?"

"Yes it did. And there is no way a Geth could know that." She noticed that the two Quarian marines were still pointing their guns at us. "Stand down." Tali ordered.

"But their Geth!" The one in white exclaimed.

"Praza I said stand down." Tali ordered again,

"Praza, look I'm not going to hurt anyone. Were just here to find out what happened to the colonists."

"That's what we are here for as well, one was out here on a pilgrimage, we want to know if he is alive. We think he might be in that bunker over there."

the ground started to shake, small pebbles were bouncing around.

"Something is coming." The Quarian on Tali's other side said.

"TARGET ACQUIRED!" A large white mech bounded across the courtyard, spraying us with mass accelerator rounds and missile fire, the missiles were going so fast it was impossible to dodge and soon our cover was little more than rubble.

"Tali! Go high!" She and a few of the marines sprinted left and disappeared into a building coming out the other side up high on a ledge.

"Time for a distraction. Wingman go right." I said to the Geth giving it a name as well.

The Geth moved swiftly to the next piece of cover as I stood up and fired a continuous stream of lead at it. It turned and returned fire and irrelevant of trying to save my barriers kept firing at the Mech. Two metal beast firing at each other for at least 10 seconds, before it flashed it's missile launcher and I ducked into cover.

"Now!" Several overloads struck the side of the mech and it's barriers flared. The giant red optic flashed between red, blue and black. 6 Quarian rifles barked to life, biting into the shell of the YMIR. The large widow rifle that Wingman carried had the largest bite of all, it's rounds tore through one side and left the other. And with a last shot broke the head right off it.

The micro-fusion core didn't have time to dump and proceeded to flash a glowing red.

An earth shattering roar followed and a grave was dug for the mech. All that remained was a hole in the ground.

Meanwhile.

"Sir we just received word from our Quarian friend, they went to investigate freedoms progress in search of the pilgrim. They were contacted by Geth, the Geth platform called itself Shepard." The young private informed me.

"Any reason to believe that this is commander Shepard?"

"Sir, the leader of the Quarian group was Tali zorha'nar Rya. A former teammate of commander Shepard's crew and was a first hand witness of the brutality of the Geth, and since she ordered the ceasefire, that the Geth platform may be the deceased commander Shepard."

"Very well, you're dismissed." The private saluted and left. Leaving the man in the chair alone.

Their Quarian assistant had supplied a rather through report of the Geth platform. It contained technology a decade ahead of what the military fielded and much more durable than the Geth in the footage of Shepard's team's head cams.

It hefted a huge heavy machine gun, that continued to fire for what seamed forever. The footage supplied showed that it shot for almost 20 seconds without stopping an impossible feat for a weapon of such calibre.

The gun was untraceable. No know weapon manufacture built it. Which meant that it was a one of a kind. Which also suggested that the platform was one of a kind as well, truly fascinating.

The man proceeded to open a new window on his computer, he typed a letter. The subject: _The Shepard conundrum._


End file.
